Tag Archives: running

Taking A Run Class (or Proof I’m Faster and Stronger)

Posted on August 23, 2016 | Comments Off on Taking A Run Class (or Proof I’m Faster and Stronger)

Like I mentioned yesterday, I technically did 4 workouts last week. My Saturday workout wasn’t a regular class at Orangetheory, but instead one of the special classes they offer for members from time to time. This time, it was a 1 hour running class. So instead of the hour being split between cardio and weights, it was cardio only.

I’ll admit that I wasn’t feeling too sure about signing up. I actually didn’t sign up until Friday because I was going back and forth if I should do it. But there was one space left when I was there on Friday and I saw that as I sign that I was supposed to go. I had already talked to the coach, Dana, about it and she said that I could do it as a run/walk without too many issues.

While working on Saturday before the class, I was thinking that I made a huge mistake. I knew I couldn’t back out, but I was having some serious regrets. But I decided to try to have a positive mindset and hope for the best (similar to how I was feeling for the Dri-Tri). And by the time it was time for me to drive over to take the class, I was feeling a bit better about things.

I knew that there would be endurance, strength, and power work during the hour, but I wasn’t sure how it would go and was a little nervous that I wouldn’t know how to split things between running and walking. So when class started, I jumped on my favorite treadmill (number 11) and was walking to warm up.

The first thing we had during the class was endurance work which was really more like speed work. The plan was to try to bump up our base pace and push pace each time, but I knew speed work wasn’t what I needed. So for all the 90 second push paces, I ran at the speed I’m comfortable running at (pretty much between 4.5 and 5.0 mph). I walked during all of the base paces, but was able to run for all of the 90 second pushes.

Our next work was timed distances. The first thing we had to do was .25 miles, which I knew I could do. But since I knew I could do it, this time I did want to try to bump up my speed to see if I could get a bit faster. I was able to get my time down below 3 minutes (2:53 to be exact) and was feeling super exhausted and out of breath after that. We were supposed to then do .5 miles for time, but I knew I couldn’t run that and to run/walk it was going to be very tough because of how much I pushed it with the .25 mile. So I just walked it at an incline and tried to calm my heart rate down a bit.

Our next segment was strength, which is all hill work. I’m not ok with running on hills really, so I did this entire segment as a walk. I tried to keep my inclines up higher than normal, but I’m really having trouble doing anything beyond 12% incline. But this part went by pretty quickly for me so I’m glad that I didn’t have to just walk for too long.

One of the last segments was power work. This was short push to all out paces. Some of them were at inclines, but below 4% which isn’t too bad for me (4% is considered flat road for power walkers). For all the push to all outs, I ran everything. I did walk during the walking recovery, but I know that I ran a lot more than I have ever so that was pretty awesome.

To finish up the run class, we had a mile challenge. We had 8 or 9 minutes to get it done, and I knew I wasn’t feeling ok to do an entire mile (nor could I finish in that time). So I decided that I was going to push myself to do a half mile as a run/walk with 1 minute runs and 1 minute walks. This is the pace I feel like I might be able to do for my next 5K, so I really want to work on feeling more comfortable with this pattern and get my endurance up. It wasn’t easy considering how much work I had already done, but I was able to get it done and felt pretty great that I finished!

We had to keep starting and stopping our treadmills, but I knew I’d want to know my distance so every time we stopped I got a picture. And here’s what I ended up doing within the hour.

OTF Run Day

That’s 3.55 miles in 56:36! To put things in perspective, my last 5K was about 20 seconds slower than the class was and I did almost .5 miles more! That’s way more improvement than I would have expected! Since we had the treadmill segments broken up, I have no clue what time it was when I got to 3.1 miles but I still know that I am faster!

After class was done, I was so happy that I decided to go for it. It was not easy and there were times in the middle that I questioned doing it, but I know that I need to push myself like this. It’s only going to make me stronger and faster in all aspects of my life. While I’m still nervous about my next 5K, I’m feeling slightly better that it’s not going to be impossible and that I can at least run/walk part of it!

I’m hoping to start doing some non-Orangetheory run practice soon. I need to figure out a safe time for me to be running on the running path near my house (so during the daylight but not when it’s too hot). The more practice I can get in, the better! And this class was a great way to get that practice started!

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Default ThumbnailStill Taking This A Bit Easy (or Not Going To Push Too Hard) Default ThumbnailMore Running! (or Gaining Endurance) Default ThumbnailTaking It Easy (or Trying Not To Be Hard On Myself) Default ThumbnailProof Of My Progress (or I Am Doing Better) Default ThumbnailHomework and Other Work (or Taking My Class Seriously) Default ThumbnailStronger And Stronger (or Week 7 Is Done!)

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Guess I Motivated Myself (or No More Feeling Stuck)

Posted on August 22, 2016 | 2 comments

Last week I posted about feeling a bit stuck with my progress in running. It’s hard not to be frustrated with a plateau, and that’s exactly what I was feeling. I didn’t like feeling that way, so I guess putting it out there in my blog post motivated me to do something about it. This week I had some really great progress and I was able to continue to feel motivated and to do more than I really thought I could.

Monday’s workout was a run/row, but some of the run segments were a bit longer than I can do. When we were supposed to run .3 miles, I ran for 90 seconds (instead of the 60 seconds I usually do) and then walked until I got to .2 miles (I did in between what we were supposed to do as a runner and as a walker). Those 90 seconds weren’t easy, but I got through them and I felt so accomplished after that. The next run segment was .25 miles, which I know I can do. Again, this wasn’t easy, but it helped me remember that I’ve done this before and I could do it again. I did this .25 miles a bit slower than I have in the past, so that meant that this was the longest time I’ve run yet!

1:4 Mile

After doing that long run, I wasn’t able to fully run the last segments which were .2 and .15 miles. I was able to run a majority of those, but I know if I hadn’t pushed myself to do the .25 miles as a run I could have run those as well. Our rowing was between 150-300 meters, and since they were fast I did take some time between the treadmill and rower to catch my breath and prepare myself for the next thing I had to do. Overall, this was one of my best running days yet!

Once I got to the floor, I felt like I had already done a full workout, but I tried my best to continue to motivate myself to do more. We had a lot of upper body work with the straps and push-ups and we finished with abs (after which I was barely able to sit up). I surprised myself by how much I was able to do as well as how little pain I was in after class. Not hurting is a good sign and I know I was doing the right thing that day.

Wednesday was an endurance day, and we didn’t get to switch between blocks. I knew the treadmill work would be a tough day, but I was trying to focus on how far I could get the distance to be on the treadmill. My dream is to eventually get the treadmill to make it to 2 miles in class when we don’t switch, but I’m not quite there yet.

The endurance work has been the hardest for me to do with my running, but I was not going to make excuses for myself. When we had 3 minute push paces, instead of walking the entire thing since I know I can’t run the entire thing, I ran half of it and walked the second half. So for every 3 minute push, I ran for 90 seconds. I did the same thing for the 2 minute push paces. I can run for 2 minutes, but I was feeling really tired so I wanted to pace myself. I’m happy with how much running I did in those long pushes instead of just walking. And of course, as I’ve been doing for a while, I ran all of the all outs.

When the treadmill block was done, I shut down my treadmill and was pretty impressed with what my distance had been in class.

Endurance Day

I wish I had noticed when I reached 1.55 miles because that is half of a 5K, but I missed seeing that. But I know that my speed is up so my times are getting better and better.

For the second half of class, we had some sprint rows of 300 meters, arm work on the straps, squats using the Bosu, and ab work. Again, it was another workout that I was exhausted at the end of, but there was very little pain so I considered it a big success.

Friday was another run/row day, and this time I was able to run all of the distances we had to do! We had to do .2 and .15 miles each time (there was also a .1 segment but I didn’t make it down the list that far in the time we had). I ran every single time and didn’t do any walking except to cool down a bit after the run. When I added up everything that I ran, I did .85 miles of running. Of course, this wasn’t non-stop, but I still think that that’s pretty amazing!

The rows between the treadmill time were between 100-200 meters so they were pretty fast, but I was taking a lot of time in between to catch my breath and to let my heart rate get down a bit (it was super high all during class). I didn’t take it easy during the floor work where we had to do lots of arm work (I worked with 25 pound weights), burpees, plank jacks, and hop overs. It was another exhausting but worth it workout.

I think I got myself out of my slump. I just needed to put it out there how I was feeling to realize that I was in control of my progress and I could take it to the next level. I wrote about 3 workouts last week, but technically last week was a 4 workout week. But the 4th workout is going to be its own post, because I attended the 1 hour run class at Orangetheory for the first time! And trust me, that is worthy of being its own post!

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Default ThumbnailFeeling Better About My Progress (or Coming Back From The Dri-Tri) Default ThumbnailA Powerful Workout Week (or Feeling Amazing Again) Default ThumbnailBuilding Up My Running Skills (or Getting A New PR) Default ThumbnailLots Of Running and Rowing (or Proof Of My Progress) Default ThumbnailBack Into The Running Groove (or Feeling Really Great About My Workouts) Default ThumbnailIs This A Rut? (or Trying To Not Feel Stuck)

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Working On Pushing Things (or Hoping I Am Stronger)

Posted on August 15, 2016 | 2 comments

I’ve been feeling a bit stuck in my workouts lately. I think it’s because I was doing so amazing when I started running and was able to make huge jumps in my progress with very little effort. Now I’m feeling a bit in a slump because I’m not progressing like I feel like I should and I don’t know how to get better. I know that I’m being really hard on myself, but that’s just what I do. So this past week of workouts, I really tried to make some baby steps in my progress to feel like I’m at least moving forward and not being stuck.

Monday’s workout was endurance, strength, and power and we did get to switch between blocks. Those days are becoming one of my favorites (I think run/row days are still my favorites) because the blocks are short and I feel like I’m able to recover between each thing. For the endurance block on the treadmill, we had some long push paces. The push paces were 1 minute, 2 minutes, or 3 minutes. I ran for the first minute of each push (I know I could probably run the 2 minute one too, but I was scared to overdo it) and then walked the rest. I did run all of the all outs and tried to bump up my speed a bit each time. For the strength block, since those are hills I had to stick with walking. I can run a bit on hills, but I’m not really good at doing that. But for the power block we had 1 minute pushes and 30 second all outs and I ran for all of that.

For the floor blocks there was a lot of focus on arms, but we also got to do some sprint rows. I’m getting much better with my form for the rowing, especially with sprints, so I was happy to get to work on that a bit more. And I was able to finish up the workout with a block of ab work which was a nice way to end things.

On Wednesday, we had a strength day but we did get to switch between blocks. The blocks were pretty short, so they weren’t too bad. Most were under 5 minutes. I didn’t run most of the treadmill time because things were at an incline, but I did try to walk at a higher incline than normal. I did run the all outs (they were on a flat treadmill) and I also ran an all out that was on a 3% incline which was a nice challenge. Since I usually have my treadmill at 4% or higher while walking, 3% while running wasn’t too bad.

When I was on the floor, I took the fact that it was a strength day to heart. I wanted to do better than I normally do, so I decided to stick with 25 pound weights for my arm work. It was really tough for some of the moves, but I didn’t want to go down to the 20 pound weights (which is what I usually use). I had to take breaks during some of the sets, but I was able to get them done with the heavier weights and it really made me feel great! I still remember when I started how I was using maybe 10 pound weights and thought the 12 and 15 pound ones were so heavy. I’ve totally made progress from where I started.

Friday was another day that had endurance, strength, and power but there were no switches between the blocks. For the endurance block, I decided that I was going to walk the 3 minute push but then tried to run as long as I could with the other push paces. For the 1 minute one I was able to run the entire thing and for the 2 minutes one I ran for just about 90 seconds before I walked the last 30 seconds. 90 seconds isn’t the longest I’ve run, but since I’m doing mostly 1 minute runs knowing that I ran a bit longer than normal was good. I need to remember that 30 seconds of more running is still more running.

For the strength section, I walked everything except the all outs on the flat treadmill. I do think I could have run some of it, and I think I need to stop doubting myself and just go for it. The doubt is stopping my progress and once I get over that hurdle, maybe I won’t feel as stuck. But for the power block, since they were short pushes to all outs (with walking after), I ran all of that and felt very accomplished when I stepped off the treadmill.

Once I moved to the floor, we had a couple of arm moves and I used my usual 20 pound weights (my arms were feeling a bit off because I slept funny the night before and I didn’t want to push too much). We also had sprint rows of 150 meters and I was able to improve on my time each row. While those parts of the floor work was good, we also had a couple of things that aren’t that easy for me. We had some lunges which sometimes are fine but my hips weren’t loving them at the end of the workout. I had to hold on to the wall to get my balance several times and I was feeling a bit stuck and sometimes couldn’t seem to switch legs. We also had pop jacks which are always so hard for me and Friday was no exception. Fortunately, I didn’t get my hips stuck on those and I just pushed through and was glad when I was done with them.

Reflecting back on the last few months of workouts, I really have made incredible progress even if I sometimes find it hard to see. Maybe before my workouts I need to review what I was doing a few months ago and seeing that what I’m doing now would have been impossible for me back then. Even if I am stuck in my progress, there is still progress that has been made. And I really want to focus on that idea instead of the negative.

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Default ThumbnailPushing Myself (or So Many Hills!) Default ThumbnailPushing A Bit Too Much (or Glad I Took The Weekend Off) Default ThumbnailA Powerful Workout Week (or Feeling Amazing Again) Default ThumbnailFiguring Things Out (or Finding A Balance With Running) Default ThumbnailTime To Push Myself Again (or Running Some Hills) Default ThumbnailStronger And Stronger (or Week 7 Is Done!)

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Working With Friends (or Having Someone To Push Me)

Posted on August 8, 2016 | 1 comment

This past week of workouts was a nice change-up from the past few weeks. 2 of the workouts had partner elements which we haven’t had in a while. I really love the partner workouts because it pushes me so much harder when I know that someone is counting on me to finish so they can finish. So I think this past week was really great for me (especially since I had a pretty bad food week).

Monday was mainly a run/row day for us. It was an endurance day so I wasn’t able to run as much as I can, but I did run for all the 1 minute segments that I had. This part of the workout wasn’t partnered, so I was just doing the run/row on my own. Once I got to the floor, the focus was on arms and after rowing during the run/row my arms were feeling a bit dead. We ended those blocks with about 15 minutes left to go in the workout. So that’s when the partner stuff started.

We all partnered with one other person and one of us went to the rower and the other was on the floor. The person on the floor controlled the pace of things, so the person on the rower just rowed until they were tagged by their partner. While on the floor, we had to do push ups, pop jacks, and squats. Pop jacks aren’t that fun for me (it isn’t easy to do with my hips) but I was really motivated to get them done so I could get my partner off of the rower since that was the harder part (at least it was in my mind). We were able to switch back and forth pretty quickly and pretty evenly and at the end of the workout I was exhausted but felt great about what I was able to get done.

Wednesday was a power day where we switched between blocks. But we switched after having 2 blocks together for a very good reason. We did some distance challenges on the treadmill that day. So 2 of the blocks were the same time so we did those back to back to compare what we were able to do. I was pretty excited to see what I’d be able to do and since they were shorter than most treadmill blocks I knew I could push myself a bit more.

For the 5 minute distance challenge, we had a 2 minute push pace, 1 minute base pace, 1 minute push pace, and 1 minute all out pace. It’s a lot to do and I knew that I wouldn’t be able to run for all the push and all out segments. So the first time I did it I walked for the 2 minute push and then ran the 1 minute push and 1 minute all out. I was pretty happy with the distance I got, but I knew I could do better. So right after doing that we did it again and I ran for the first minute of the 2 minute push and then walked for that second minute (and kept the rest of it the same as the first attempt). I did bump my speed up a bit as well, and I had a major improvement from the first to the second attempt!

5 Minute Challenge

I was pretty proud of myself for how much better I was able to do and while it was tough to run for 2 minutes (between the push and all out), but I’m so happy I did it because I need to work on my endurance and I have to make myself uncomfortable to get better.

After those two blocks, I went to the floor. The first block was 5 minutes of rowing and the second block was a lot of arm work but I was able to use some pretty heavy weights. But I was ready to get back on the treadmill to try the next distance challenge.

The last two treadmill blocks were both 4 minute challenges. It was a 1 minute push, 1 minute base, 1 minute push, and 1 minute all out. I knew that I could run all the of the push and all out segments and I would walk for the base to recover. This time I knew it would be much harder to have an improvement between the first and second attempt, but I did my best to bump up the speed the second time around so that I could get at least a little bit more distance. It wasn’t as huge of an improvement as my 5 minute challenge, but I’m still so happy that I got a little bit farther.

4 Minute Challenge

The final work on the floor that day were pretty tough for me. I know I pushed myself a bit too much on the treadmill and my body was feeling it. I wasn’t feeling so great by the end and I didn’t want to do anything that might make things feel worse. We were supposed to do burpees during that floor work, but I knew I couldn’t do that so I did pushups on the TRX straps instead. I hate not being able to do something we are supposed to do, but I also have to do what’s best for my body.

And to wrap up my workout week, Friday was also a partner workout! This time, it was 3 people on each team and my blogger friend Jordan was in class so we partnered up. We also partnered up with another awesome lady, but I never caught her name (sorry!). This time, as a group our goal was to row 6,000 meters. Each of us were responsible for 2,000 meters and we did them 500 meters at a time.

So for this workout one of us was on the rower, one was on the treadmill, and one was on the floor. The person on the rower controlled the pace of things. They would row 500 meters and then tag the person on the treadmill to stop so they could get on the treadmill. The person on the treadmill was doing a push pace for the entire time they were on there. And once the treadmill person was tagged, they went to the floor to tag that person and the floor person went to the rower to do their 500 meters.

It was a lot of switching, but it was great because we were pretty much only doing one thing for 3 minutes at a time. My group didn’t quite make it to 6,000 meters during the workout (it was my last 500 meters that didn’t get done), but that wasn’t because of our speed on the rower. We had some transition issues that I know slowed us down and prevented us from finishing right on time.

Since I was going to the treadmill from the rower (where I was working really hard to row fast), I didn’t do any running during the partner workout. I power walked at 6% incline to try to get my heart rate down a bit but still trying to workout. On the floor, we had some arm and abs work to do and I tried to take that time to catch my breath more and take sips of water to get ready to be back on the rower.

I really enjoyed this workout even though we didn’t complete the challenge. It was a great way to push myself for really quick segments and then move on so I didn’t get too tired from one thing. I was exhausted after it was all done, but it was a good exhaustion and not too overwhelming like it is sometimes when I push myself too hard.

I’m starting to get really excited for when my running watch gets here because I’m thinking I’ll test it out for some OTF stuff too. It will be a great way to test out features and to figure out how I want to use it, plus it might give me more insight into my running at OTF than I get from the treadmill or heart rate monitor. The watch may arrive this week or it might not make it for another 2 weeks, but as soon as it gets here I know it’s going to make my workout recaps even more interesting!

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Default ThumbnailTesting My Running (or Holidays and Friends) Default ThumbnailRowing And Partners (or Enjoying A 4 Workout Week) Default ThumbnailAnother Week Of Taking It Easy (or Feeling Strong While Not Working As Hard) Default ThumbnailGoing Big During Peak Performance Week (or A Week Of PRs) Default ThumbnailNew Limits (or Having Friends To Push Me) Default ThumbnailTime To Push Myself Again (or Running Some Hills)

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Upping My Game (or Getting Serious About Running)

Posted on August 3, 2016 | Comments Off on Upping My Game (or Getting Serious About Running)

I think you can all tell from my past few workout posts that I’m getting more serious about running. This is the first time that I’ve really had a workout challenge like this that I’m working on and I think I’m surprising myself that I’m liking it! But I’ve felt lately that I’ve gotten a bit stuck where my running is now and I need to work on things differently.

I love my Orangetheory workouts (I can’t imagine my life without them now), but they aren’t the best workouts for me to work on my running skills on. I’ve been lucky that several workouts lately have been ideal for me to work on getting faster and running longer, but those workouts aren’t every workout and I can’t rely on them alone. So I’ve decided that I need to try to do some running workouts on my own.

My big fear is that I’m going to overdo things. I know that I did that at Orangetheory recently when I ran for .25 miles. Yes, I did it, but I probably shouldn’t have. My body didn’t hurt right away with that challenge, but I know that it wasn’t the best thing I could have done. If I start running training on my own, I’m afraid that I will push myself more than I should and that it will cause issues for me. I know I can run longer than I do now, but I also know that I probably shouldn’t do it.

So I’ve been asking for a lot of running advice from a bunch of different people. Some are bloggers I met at BlogFest and I’ve also been asking my friend Kate (who is always willing to help me). My biggest questions have been how to build up endurance without getting burned out and how I can make sure that I continue to progress at a good pace (and not get stuck like I’m feeling now). And fortunately everyone has been very helpful and willing to give me any advice that they can!

A lot of the advice I got was different run/walk training plans. I had a bunch of those already, but when you aren’t on a treadmill they aren’t too easy to use. I’m not going to join another gym just to use a treadmill every so often and I’ve got a running path a few blocks from my house that opened recently, so I asked everyone again for advice on how to time intervals for run/walk work.

Again, I got a lot of advice with different ideas. Some people suggested various apps to time myself, but I’m not sure I’ll always be out with my headphones in my ears (not too safe to do that outside). I got some recommendations for interval devices, but I wasn’t sure I wanted something that just did 1 thing. And then I got the advice to look at running watches, and that’s exactly what I did.

There are dozens of different running watches out there and many of them are very expensive. I’m sure they are worth it and some runners need all the bells and whistles, but I’m not one of those runners. A running watch that could time intervals and had a GPS on it (so I knew my distance and pace) is all I wanted. And I finally found what I believe will be the perfect one for me.

Running Watch

I found the Garmin Forerunner 220 watch. This is one of the few running watches I found that has the features I want but doesn’t have a heart rate monitor (I don’t need that since I can use my Orangetheory one if I want to track heart rate). This one is not the most recent model (I believe it’s a year or two old), but it was recommended to me by so many people. And one of the features is setting your own intervals so I can set it to be 1 minute running/1 minute walking and then adjust it as I’m ready to do more. I think this will be perfect.

And since my birthday is a week away, I asked my parents if this would be something they would get me for my birthday. It was on sale for about 40% off on Amazon and my dad checked it out and said it seemed like the perfect gift for me! It was ordered earlier this week and because I didn’t want to pay for shipping (it’s not Prime eligible) I won’t have it for another week or two.

But I’m fine with waiting for the watch because this was the cheapest place I could find it! My parents didn’t have to get me a birthday present since they paid for me to go to the family reunion, so I’m just grateful for any gift. And this is a generous one and I’m excited to test it out soon!

I’m not sure how I’m going to work in extra running training outside of Orangetheory workouts. Maybe I’ll do them on the weeks I don’t have a 4th workout. Or maybe I will do them on my off days but keep the workout pretty short. I’m still working things out and I’ve got time to figure it out. All I know is that my next race is in a few months and while I’ve done a mile with a run/walk pattern, I want to be able to do that for a 5K and get a new PR!

If I knew even a few months ago that I would be running and looking for ways to run more and improve my skills, I would have said you were crazy and I’d never do that. Then again, if you told me 3 years ago that I’d be working out 3-4 times a week and lifting weight I wouldn’t have believed it either. I love that I’m transforming into an athlete and I can’t wait to see what will be next for me!

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Default ThumbnailTime To Push Myself Again (or Running Some Hills) Default ThumbnailExtra Running Time (or Figuring Out What I Can Do) Default ThumbnailTesting Myself (or Running More) Default ThumbnailBuilding Up My Running Skills (or Getting A New PR) Default ThumbnailFiguring Things Out (or Finding A Balance With Running) Default ThumbnailLots Of Running and Rowing (or Proof Of My Progress)

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Figuring Things Out (or Finding A Balance With Running)

Posted on August 1, 2016 | 1 comment

This past week I did 4 workouts, and they were all pretty great. They were tough and at times during the workout I was wondering if I was overdoing things, but in the end I think each of my workouts really helped me get into a really good workout groove for the week.

I missed my usual Monday morning workout because I was flying back from my trip, so I had my first workout on Tuesday afternoon. I hadn’t been feeling jet lagged at all on Tuesday morning, but for some reason Tuesday around lunchtime I started to feel very off. I tried to get myself back on track, but I realized it was going to be an off day and just accepted that. But I wasn’t going to let my workout suffer too much because of it. The workout was an endurance run/row day, so I was grateful that I didn’t have to do a ton of treadmill work. The pattern of the run/row was a 1 mile (1600 meter) row, .25 mile run, .5 mile (800 meter) row, .5 mile run, .25 mile (400 meter) row, 1 mile run. And we were supposed to get as far down the pattern as we could.

The 1600 meter row took me a while to get through, but I was able to do it without taking any breaks which made me pretty happy. For the .25 mile run, even though I know I can run that I didn’t want to push myself too hard. So I did the power walking distance of .13 miles and did 1 minute of running and 1 minute of walking. I did that same plan for the .5 mile run (I did .25 miles with 1 minute intervals) and I made it to the 400 meter row before the time was up. I didn’t expect to make it to the mile run, so I wasn’t disappointed that I didn’t finish all of the things.

On Wednesday, I was feeling much more like myself and I was feeling pretty good going into the workout. It was a strength day and we didn’t switch between blocks. I didn’t run for any of the incline work because I’m really not ready for that. But I did try to push my inclines up a bit higher than normal to make up for not running. I was able to run all of the all outs that were on a flat road (which is a 1% incline) and I even did the all out that was at a 4% incline (which is the flat road for power walkers). I’m glad I had some all outs to run during because I really don’t want to skip on running at least a little bit during each workout.

For the floor work, we had sprint rows for 200 meters and I was able to keep my times on those pretty short. My legs still struggle with the power I should have for the rowing, but I know that it’s just something that I need to work on and it will get better. Besides the rowing, the floor work focused a lot of abs and arm work. For almost all of my arm stuff, I was using 25 pound weights. It was a little too heavy at times for me, but I was able to finish each set and I know that in time the weight won’t feel as heavy.

Friday’s workout was endurance, strength, and power and again we didn’t switch between blocks.  During the endurance block, I was able to run during the 90 and 60 second pushes as well as the all out. The 90 second run was feeling a bit long for me, but I’ve been working on building my endurance so I know I need to push myself to go a little longer. For the strength time, I power walked for all the hills but I was getting the hills to the inclines I was using before I tore my calf, which is significantly higher than I normally do. I did run the all out, but it was on a flat road. And for the power block, we had short push paces to all outs and I ran for all of those. It was more running than normal for me, but I was feeling pretty amazing after.

On the floor, we had 400 and 100 meter rows and again we did a lot of ab and arm work. A lot of the work that day was using the straps, so that was a nice change from using the weights. The strap work sometimes is harder for me to do because my arms get wobbly when I’m tired, but that’s part of what makes it a good workout system for me.

And to complete my workout week, I went to Saturday’s workout. Normally on a Saturday I go on the bike since I feel like I’ve done enough treadmill work for the week. And I debated doing that this time, but something was pulling me to go to the treadmill and to break my own rules. So I went for it.

It was an endurance day and for the 4th time that week there were no switches between the blocks. There were some really long pushes on the treadmill, and I didn’t want to overdo things. So for the 3 minute push, I power walked. But for all the other push paces which were between 1-2 minutes, I ran. I wasn’t always able to run for the entire thing, but I at least ran for a minute each time. The 90 second pushes were much tougher than the day before, but I was still trying and that’s what’s most important to me.

And for the floor work, we had 1 long block to work on the entire time. We had 500 meter rows (which felt long compared to the sprint rows from earlier in the week) and then we went over to the weights to work on the rest of the block. We had rows and chest presses on the straps, tricep and bicep work with weights, and ab work on the floor. And we kept repeating the block over and over again for the entire time. It was pretty great because I wasn’t feeling rushed at all to get things done and I was able to get through a couple of cycles of it.

Overall, this week made me pretty happy with my running so far. I got really down on myself because I was making such great progress last month and I thought I’d be able to continue to do so again this month. I honestly thought I’d be able to run for 5 minutes by now, and I’m still struggling at times to run for 2 minutes. I’m working on some new plans to get my running progressing at a good pace (thanks a bunch to my friend Kate who shared a ton of websites with me!) and I think that this week of workouts really got me onto a good path again.

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Default ThumbnailRunning And Walking (or Accepting My Limits) Default ThumbnailMaybe Not That Much Running (or Training For Thanksgiving) Default ThumbnailLots Of Running And Hills (or Back To A 4 Workout Week) Default ThumbnailExtra Running Time (or Figuring Out What I Can Do) Default ThumbnailSetbacks and Goals (or Still Figuring Out What’s Next) Default ThumbnailGetting Back To Better Food (or Finding My Own Balance)

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Wanting To Run (or Focusing On Running And Rowing)

Posted on July 25, 2016 | Comments Off on Wanting To Run (or Focusing On Running And Rowing)

My week of workouts last week were a bit interesting. I’m discovering that I need to push myself harder to get my heart rate up, but my endurance isn’t quite there yet. I’m finding the most trouble on the treadmill. I used to be able to get my heart rate into the orange zone while power walking, but now it doesn’t want to get there unless I’m running. I know this is a good sign and I’m getting much stronger with my cardiovascular ability. But I need to work on the endurance to get there too and I’m not finding it as easy as it was when I started running to build endurance now.

I don’t think I’ve necessarily hit a wall, but I’ve hit a small barrier. It’s like weight loss. When you start losing weight, you tend to lose very quickly at first and then it slows down. When I started running I found I could push my time by huge jumps without too much effort. Now, I’m finding it tough to run longer than a minute at times. I’m not giving up or losing hope, but it’s made me realize that I have to focus on training a bit differently now and perhaps I was just staying in my comfort zone before and now I’m truly pushing myself.

On Monday, we had a power day that switched between blocks. All the blocks were pretty short so I was able to do some good treadmill work. I was able to run during all of the all-out segments which were either 30 seconds or 1 minute long. I’m pushing things a bit with my speed on those all-outs, so I’ve been doing more at 5.5 mph when I’m not too tired (when I’m tired I’m scared I’m running sloppily and don’t want to hurt myself).

With the power day, we also had rowing to do. The rows were timed sprints and they weren’t too horrible for me. We had 3 timed sprints (1 minute, 2 minutes, and 4 minutes) and while my wattage on the rower was pretty low for me, I was able to do all of the sprints without taking a break and I hit my goal for the distance each time. There was a rowing workshop this past weekend that I wished I could have gone to (I was out-of-town) but I really want to go to the next one. I know I could be doing better with my rowing and I’d like to work on improving that.

Wednesday was a power day again, but no switching between blocks. It felt more like an endurance day for me because of the long time on the treadmill, but we had several walking recoveries during the 23 minutes on the treadmill so that helped a lot. Some of the push paces were 2 or 2 1/2 minutes long, and for those I had to stick with power walking. I really wanted to run (or run/walk), but I knew I needed to save my strength a bit for the all-outs. I did run during the shorter 1 minute push paces including the time that we had a 1 minute push into a 1 minute all-out (so that was 2 minutes of running). While we had the shorter all-outs, I decided to really push myself (I had barely been in the orange zone at all with my heart rate) so I ran for 30 seconds at 6 mph. That is definitely fast for me and I don’t think I could have done it for more than 30 seconds at a time. But it made me happy and gave me a boost of confidence when I was losing a bit of confidence in my running.

After all that treadmill work, I was exhausted. But I was only half way done with my workout so I tried to catch my breath so I could do my best during the floor work. For the floor, we had 2 long blocks that had a couple of different things to do in each one. But we started each set in each floor block with a sprint row. One block was a decreasing row and the other block was a constant row. But they were always sprint rows. I was starting to feel a bit competitive with one of the people on the rower next to me so we decided to race each other for one of the 150 meter rows. The goal time for 150 meters is under 45 seconds. But in my race I was moving so hard that the rower was starting to move with me and I was able to do it in 29.8 seconds! I lost the race (the other person did it in 28.8 seconds), but I was still pretty happy with what I was able to do. And I did another race (but with myself this time) for one of the 200 meter rows at the end of the workout and was able to do it in 47.9 seconds (goal time is under a minute).

I didn’t work out on Friday (I was on the plane on Friday during my usual workout time) so I did a Thursday workout instead. Thursday was endurance, strength, and power all in one workout. And it was a run/row day so I was really able to work on those workout elements. Because there was endurance, strength, and power for the run/row; each of the segments of the run were different. Some were longer distances, some were at inclines, and some were super short. So I had to work on a plan on how to use running during them all. For the long distance one, I did 1 minute of running and 1 minute of walking. I did the walking distance for it (which is half of the running distance), but my coaches have all been ok with that. They know what I’m doing and they have all been really supportive.

For the strength running, since it was at an incline I had to plan carefully. But I did want to try the running with an incline because it’s a good way to push myself without having to run longer. I still did 1 minute of running and 1 minute of walking for it and I was splitting the difference between the running distance and walking distance. I ran at the running incline and walked at my usual walking inclines for push paces. This was pretty tough (especially running at 5% incline), but I was able to stick with my 1 minute/1 minute plan so I was feeling pretty awesome about that.

The power running were all short bursts of .15 miles. I really planned on just running the entire thing because I know I can do that and have done it plenty before. But this was at the end of the workout and I was pretty exhausted (I was rowing sprints between all of the running segments so that was a lot). I really tried my best to run as long as I could, but I was feeling like walking after 45 seconds. I stuck it out for the minute and then started to walk.

I felt a bit disappointed in myself but as soon as we were switching to the floor my coach told me how impressed she was with my running improvement. While I’ve been so focused on times and distance, I haven’t really thought too much about form. But I guess I no longer look like I’m struggling for each step and things are starting to look really smooth and fluid. That gave me a huge boost of confidence and made my floor work on Thursday a lot happier.

After my Thursday workout, I started asking my running friends about help on building endurance. A couple of them are going to be sending me some notes and advice that they’ve seen online or have heard in running groups. I need to start thinking more seriously about my running training if I want to keep improving. I never realized how hard I could push myself and train like this, but I’m so glad I’m doing it. Since the beginning at Orangetheory I’ve felt like an athlete (not just someone at a gym). But now I feel like not just an athlete, but an athlete in training and I need to take that mindset outside of just my workouts and start researching running and planning things out.

I’ve got a few more months until my next 5K race. I feel pretty good that I can PR on the race (unless I get hurt I will be doing a run/walk race for the first time). But I don’t just want to PR on the race. I want to set a goal for myself that is tough but achievable. Hopefully I can reach that goal and prove to myself that even if my running progress is stuck now that in the long haul I made huge progress.

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Default ThumbnailExtra Running Time (or Figuring Out What I Can Do) Default ThumbnailRowing And Partners (or Enjoying A 4 Workout Week) Default ThumbnailLots Of Running and Rowing (or Proof Of My Progress) Default ThumbnailBack To 4 Workouts (or More Rowing!) Default ThumbnailRowing Adventures (or A Funny Workout Injury) Default ThumbnailTesting Myself (or Running More)

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A Few Setbacks (or Not Being Hard On Myself)

Posted on July 18, 2016 | Comments Off on A Few Setbacks (or Not Being Hard On Myself)

This week was a tough week of workouts. But they weren’t tough because the workouts were hard. They were tough because I was struggling. I know that having off days is a part of making progress, but knowing it doesn’t make things easier when I’m having an off week.

I knew Monday might be tough because I was still recovering from my night shoot over the weekend. But I got a lot of sleep on Sunday night, so I was feeling pretty good waking up on Monday morning. So I thought that maybe I wasn’t going to have a bad day and my exhaustion was done. And when I got to Orangetheory and saw that it was a run/row day, I was pretty excited because I knew that those days are easier on me with keeping the treadmill time to short bursts.

But it was also a strength day which meant hills on the treadmill. I tried to run the first segment on the treadmill (with incline), and it just wasn’t going to happen. After trying to run for that first segment, I realized that there just wasn’t going to be any more running that day. I did power walk everything else and it wasn’t my best speed or incline but I got it done. And we did have to do calf raises after each row segment so I was able to catch my breath a bit between rowing and the treadmill. Fortunately, I did a bit better on the floor that day. We did a lot of shoulder work and also had some rollouts on the straps (which I felt great because my body needed that stretch). We also had a 6 minute block on the floor that was just ab work using the Bosu ball, which also was less taxing on my body.

Wednesday I was finally feeling more like myself. I’m shocked how long it took me to recover from the night shoot, but I also think I pushed myself too hard the 2 days after the shoot so I wasn’t able to recover as fast as I could have. The workout was endurance, strength, and power and we were switching between blocks so the class seemed to go by pretty quickly for me. For the endurance and strength treadmill blocks, I walked the base and push paced but I did run for the all-outs. But on the power section we had 30 second all-outs followed by 30 second walking recoveries and I was able to run for all of those all-outs. I was going pretty quickly for those 30 second segments, typically staying above 5 mph.

The floor work was focused a lot on arms and abs. I was doing ok with that until the very end of class where we had a short buddy challenge. My friend Dani was in class with me so she and I partnered up. We had to be in a plank and alternate bringing one hand up to high-five each other while staying in the plank. At the beginning I was doing ok, but my body was so ready to be done by then. I tried to keep up my part of the partner work and to bring my hand up every time so Dani always had a buddy to high-five, but I wasn’t able to keep my plank the entire time and was feeling pretty out of breath while trying. Again, I was frustrated that I had to give up during the workout, but I was trying to remind myself that I had just done a big workout and did some pretty fast run sprints.

Friday was the day that I was back to my usual workout self. We had a strength day that did switch between the blocks. Since I’m really not ready to work on running on hills, I stayed with power walking for almost all of the treadmill work. I was keeping my inclines up around 6-10% and my speed was usually between 3.5 and 3.7 mph during all the push paces. One of the all-outs was on an incline so I walked that one too. But we did have 2 all-outs that were at a flat road and I ran those. For the 1 minute all-out, I ran for a minute at 5 mph which felt really fast that day but it was great not having to be at an incline! And for the 30 second all-out, I was going at 5.5 mph which felt like flying to me! I really love doing those sprints because I’m able to go really fast and I love feeling that. I just really need to work on my endurance so I can start running more often in the workouts.

The floor work on Friday was a good mix of rowing and arms. We had a bunch of 200 meter rows which I was able to do in under 55 seconds every time. The rows were tough toward the end of the workout, but since they were short they weren’t too bad. We also had to do ultimate burpees in the first block which were much easier for me than they have been in a while. I was able to include the push up with each burpee and I was using some pretty heavy weights for them as well. All of my arm work was done with 15 pound weights, which aren’t the best I’ve used but since there was so much arm work I was happy with that.

Friday’s class also marked the last class I’ll get to take with my friend Dani for a while. She’s leaving next week to go to Africa where she will be hiking up Mt. Kilimanjaro! While I’m sad I’ll be missing my workout buddy for a few weeks, I’m super excited for her! This is going to be a huge hike and I know she’s been working really hard on getting ready for the trip and making sure that she’s in the best shape possible. She’s been using super high inclines for all of her treadmill work and she’s been doing really long hikes every weekend to make sure her endurance is there. She got an Orangetheory hat as a gift from the studio we go to and I’m so excited to see the picture of her on the top of the mountain wearing it! So since this was our last class together for a while, I figured we had to get a post-workout sweaty selfie together.

Dani's Off To Africa!

The next two weeks of workouts will be working around my trip next weekend, but I’ve finally got it all figured out! I might not be hitting all of my workout goals this month (like wanting to try to run for 5 minutes), but at least I’m not giving up!

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Default ThumbnailFeeling Better About My Progress (or Coming Back From The Dri-Tri) Default ThumbnailSetbacks and Goals (or Still Figuring Out What’s Next) Default ThumbnailSome Progress and Some Setbacks (or Trying To Set New Workout Goals) Default ThumbnailFinishing The 12 Days Of Fitness (or Some PRs and Some Setbacks) Default ThumbnailManaging My Setbacks (or Taking My Time With Adjustments) Default ThumbnailFriends and Milestones (or Another Amazing Workout Week)

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Testing My Running (or Holidays and Friends)

Posted on July 11, 2016 | Comments Off on Testing My Running (or Holidays and Friends)

This past week of workouts was pretty good for me. It was a 3 workout week because of my schedule, but that’s ok because I’ve figured out what weeks this month will work for 4 workout weeks. I was able to work on a lot of running stuff this week, so that worked out really great for me!

Since Monday was a holiday (4th of July), it was a 3G class which means that instead of having 2 groups in the workout we had 3. Those classes are pretty rare for me to take so it was pretty cool to get to do one that day. And not only was the class a 3G, we were switching between blocks and all the blocks were about 4 minutes long. So every 4 minutes we were switching around the room and it was pretty crazy!

On the treadmill, I tried my best to run all the push and all-out paces. I wasn’t able to do all of them because they started to get long, but I was able to do a good majority of them. When I was on the rower, we had rows that were between 100-300 meters and then we had arm work to do after we finished the row. And on the floor, we had to do ultimate burpees every round before the rest of the floor work. It was a lot of work, but since the blocks were short and we moved so often it didn’t feel too bad. And I was able to get my workout done in the morning before there was too much holiday traffic!

4th of July

Wednesday was a run/row day, and my friend Amanda was in class! She’s starting to come every other week for the Wednesday workout, so that makes me pretty happy! While the class isn’t a team or partner thing, I still prefer when I have a friend there with me to make things a bit more fun.

The run/row day was an endurance day and I was doing my best on the treadmill to maintain a 1 minute run/1 minute walk pace on the treadmill the entire time. I did run the last run thing in whole since it was a .1 mile run and I know I can do that. The row was either 200 or 400 meters so it wasn’t too horrible and the 200 meters were a sprint so I could get them done really quickly. When we moved over to the floor, we had a lot of arm work (pullovers, bicep/hammer curls, and shoulder presses) and I was feeling pretty exhausted at the end and my arms were ready to be done. But at the very end of class we had a 4 minute core blast and then my abs were so tired that I missed the arm work.

Friday was a workout that had 3 friends in it so it was a really great vibe in the room! And that great vibe was needed because the workout was a bit weird for the day. We had 1 cardio block and 1 row block (each was 23 minutes long) and both blocks had strength work. On cardio, we had a .25 mile or .15 mile run and then we went to the floor to do pull-ups on the TRX straps, pop jacks, and crunches. The .25 mile run was the first one to be done and I decided since I’ve been able to run it before I would do it again. It was a lot tougher this time to run the .25 miles than it was last time but I was able to get it done without a walking break. But after doing that once, I realized it wasn’t the smartest plan for me so I did the rest of my treadmill time with the 1 minute run/1 minute walk plan.

When we switched to the row, we first had to row between 1000-600 meters. Then after doing that we had squats and some weight work like shoulder presses and arm rows (which felt really evil to me after we had to do so much rowing before that). Those rows were so long and all of my friends agreed that the Friday workout felt significantly longer than any other workout that we’ve ever done before! I was feeling a bit more tired than I like to after a workout after the one on Friday, but I got through it and I had the giant sweat mark on my shirt to prove it!

Friends

The next few weeks of workouts will be a bit of a scheduling ordeal for me to work though. This week should be ok (I think I’ve got it figured out), but I’ve got a trip coming up that will be making my workout schedule a bit tough to figure out. I’m working on a couple of plans and I think I’ll be able to do 3 workouts a week minimum each week even with my traveling coming up.

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Default ThumbnailFiguring Things Out (or Finding A Balance With Running) Default ThumbnailWorking With Friends (or Having Someone To Push Me) Default ThumbnailTesting Myself (or Running More) Default ThumbnailNew Limits (or Having Friends To Push Me) Default ThumbnailFriends and Milestones (or Another Amazing Workout Week) Default ThumbnailBuilding Up My Running Skills (or Getting A New PR)

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New Limits (or Having Friends To Push Me)

Posted on July 4, 2016 | Comments Off on New Limits (or Having Friends To Push Me)

This past week was a 4 workout week. It wasn’t easy and I really thought about canceling my 4th workout of the week, but I’m so glad I went through with it. This ended up being one of those weeks where I thought it would be normal and then something amazing happened. And after amazing things happen, my confidence in my workout ability goes up so much!

Monday was a pretty fun day. It was a power day and we did switch between blocks. But all of the blocks were about 3 or 4 minutes long, so we were never anywhere for too long. This worked out pretty well for me for my running because I had a lot of all-outs that I could run for. All of the all-outs were between 30 seconds and a minute, and while it’s still not as easy as walking for me it is getting easier to run. In fact, the 30 second runs are starting to feel the same as power walking up an incline for me. It’s totally a sign that my cardiovascular strength and endurance is getting better!

The floor work was pretty great that day too. Again, with all the blocks being really short, I never had time to get too tired. We had a couple of row blocks so I did a 4 minute row and a 3 minute row (those felt so long!). It was a pretty arm focused floor that day so there were also a bunch of shoulder presses, dips, and push ups. But it all felt pretty great to me and I was happy with my workout and how much easier the day felt for me than some other recents workouts have felt.

Wednesday was probably the highlight of my workout week. First, it was a run/row day (which I love). It was an endurance style run/row so I had long distances on the treadmill to work on my run/walk plan. I pretty much kept it the same the entire time with running for a minute and then walking for a minute. I was keeping my run at about 4.8 miles an hour and my walk at about 3.6 miles an hour and that is starting to feel more comfortable for me. Since I’m still walking I am using the walk distances on the run/row (which is half the distance that the runners do). I know that I should probably start splitting the difference between the run distance and walk distance eventually, but I’m not quite there yet.

The second to last run segment of the run/row was .5 miles, so I did .25 miles. I realized how much faster my time is when I’m doing the run/walk method and while I was on the rower started to think about how long and far I’ve run so far. My record time before Wednesday was just under 2 minutes. The final run segment of the run/row was .25 miles (.13 for walkers) and I had figured out that if I bumped up my run speed a bit, I could run .25 miles in just over 3 minutes. It would be the longest and farthest run so far, but I was almost done with the run/row so I figured it couldn’t hurt to try.

My friend Dani was in that class with me and I told her I was going to try to run .25 miles. She’s been a power walker with me, but she used to run so she said she would run on her treadmill next to me while I tried. The first minute went pretty easily and I’m so glad that Dani was paying attention to the distance on my treadmill because when she told me I was halfway there I knew I was going to be able to do it. For the last .05 miles I was really struggling. I wanted to quit and say that I had tried (and it would have still been the longest and farthest run so far), but with Dani cheering me on I knew I had to keep going. And when I got to .25 miles, I had run the entire thing and I was beyond excited!

1:4 Mile Run

It was just over 3 minutes of running and even though I proved I can do this it’s not going to be something I do regularly quite yet. I’d like to get to where I start doing the shorter push paces (between 1-2 minutes) as a run so I can work getting more used to running versus running longer distances right now. But to know that I can do this was just so incredible and I know I couldn’t have done it without Dani pushing me and cheering me on.

That day, my floor work did suffer a bit. I was so tired after that run and I had to spend more time catching my breath and taking breaks than I would have liked to. Fortunately, we had a lot of arm work and work on the ab roller so that was helping me calm down a bit after the run.

Friday was an endurance, strength, power day where we didn’t switch between blocks. During the endurance and power blocks I was running during the all-out segments and walked during the base and push paces. I wanted to try to run a bit more than that, but my body was still a bit tired from Wednesday (I’m aware I might have overdone things a bit). For the strength block, since I’m not really ready to run up hills yet I just did my power walking. I was able to get my inclines up higher than usual so that was a nice accomplishment for me. And on the floor I got a ton more leg work in with squats, lunges, and deadlifts.

Saturday was another endurance day and I’m glad that I was on the bike for it. We didn’t switch between the blocks and we had some really long push paces. Between the 2 cardio blocks, there were 2 pushes for 3 minutes, 2 pushes for 2 minutes, and 2 pushes for 90 seconds. Even with being on the bike (which is much easier for me than the treadmill), I was really tired during those long pushes. I’m not sure if I wasn’t working as hard as I should have or if my heart rate monitor was being glitchy, but I couldn’t get my heart rate up during the cardio. I tried not to let that bug me, but it was annoying when I felt like I was working so hard and my heart rate was at a speed like when I’m stretching during a cool down.

Despite the heart rate issues during the cardio, I was pretty happy with my floor work. There were 2 blocks on the floor and each started with a long row. The first was 1,000 meters and the second was 500 meters. My 1,000 meter row wasn’t so great (I had a rower that didn’t have the right setting for my smaller feet) but my 500 meter row was a similar time to my Peak Performance Week time. Considering that my 500 meter row on Saturday was almost at the end of my workout, I’m really happy that I could almost match my row at the beginning of a workout. During the first block, I didn’t get a ton of time to work on the strength work because my row took so long. But since my second row was so fast, I had plenty of time to work. There was more ab roller work (knee tucks and rollouts) and I really was feeling my abs working hard to keep my form right. I actually like when I can feel my muscles working because then I know that I’m working the right thing and I can feel all the work I’ve done before in my strength.

It was a pretty long and awesome week of workouts. I’ve been working on planing out my month of workouts since I’ve got a lot of things that will either keep me busy or not able to work out for some other reason. I think I’ve got a plan to hit my target number of workouts for the month, and this past week was a great start!

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Default ThumbnailWorking With Friends (or Having Someone To Push Me) Default ThumbnailTime To Push Myself Again (or Running Some Hills) Default ThumbnailTesting My Running (or Holidays and Friends) Default ThumbnailFiguring Things Out (or Finding A Balance With Running) Default ThumbnailTaking Things A Bit Easier (or No More Injuries) Default ThumbnailWorking On Pushing Things (or Hoping I Am Stronger)

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